I really thought or maybe I was hoping I would be further along in packing and getting rid of a lot more of the stuff that I have hoarded these past 3 years, but because of a “flood” happening in our bedroom and 2 weeks later I tested POSITIVE for Malaria after living in West Africa for EIGHT YEARS I am not. No sooner than I started to get excited about the move and get things out of pantries, closets, drawers, etc.. I ran out of energy and basically was lounge and bed ridden! The doctor told me it would take about 4 to 6 weeks to recoup my strength and he has been pretty much correct on the time!

I have been back in the States since late April visiting Doctors and trying to gain my energy back and I have had both good days and bad days. Lately more good than bad : )

I head back to Luanda in the end of June and will pack out and head to Dubai with R on July 8 to house hunt and start a new chapter in our live at least for the next 3 years!

A New Assignment

After 8 years in West Africa we have been assigned to the United Arab Emirates or more specific DUBAI with a start date of July 1, 2010. When we left Nigeria 3 years ago after spending 5 years there I thought coming to Angola was a step up and once I got here I realized NOT, but in the 3 years of living here, Luanda really has indeed built itself into a major City however in the process making it THE most expensive City in the World for an Expatriate to live in!

While I'm looking forward to moving to "real" civilization where one obeys traffic laws, (well as well as anyone does in any City) and has more than one main road to get anywhere, where there are more than one or two restaurants within 15 minutes drive from your Compound. Grocery shopping won't take more than half your day or going to more than 3 or 4 stores over a 2 or 3 day time period. And one of the worst for me is not dreading that flight coming or going from the airport here in both Angola and Nigeria. I could go on and on - Oh but one of my favorite things to look forward too - NO MORE COMPOUND LIVING!!!

What I am not looking forward too is R's job! While he is very excited about it, me not so much. 2 days a week he will be in the Dubai office and 3 days a week in the Basara office. If the name Basara sounds familiar but you just can't quite remember where that is, let me help - IRAQ - Yep IRAQ!!!

So now I start the sorting of all the stuff (or as R likes to say crap) that I've hoarded for the past 3 years. Going through it all I gotta tell you it's quite impressive what I've manage to accumulate in the 3 years with the couple of shipments we've had not to mention what I've brought over in luggage! If you ask R he will tell you I have 5000 rolls of toilet paper left! It's no where near that, but when it does fill up a closet it sure does look that way.

I will update as I go along as this will surely be an interesting time in our lives.

I leave April 20th to head back to the States because my 90 days are up here, and R heads back May 13th as his oldest daughter graduates Law School. R will need to do all his medical and get his paperwork, ie... visas, letters and such done during that time and he will returns here June 7th. I have a return date of June 27th to pack out but now that he has a start date of July 1 my date to return will change and hopefully I will go with R to Dubai as oppose to fly back to the States a join him there at a later date like I did when we first came here to Angola in July, 2007

The beginning

I have no idea which way this blog is going to go nor do I know if anyone has any interest in reading it. I like most bloggers figured that since I was on the computer all the time I might as well do something constructive with my time and what better way to that than write about oneself or ones opinions. I'll start at the beginning with how I came to live in Africa because it does indeed start as a fairy tale as it all begins with me remarrying my first husband.

My life started over 0n February 8, 2002:

Randy, my first husband, and I were originally married on May 10, 1980. I always referred to him as “the one who got away”, because we divorced after just three years together. We both went on to marry other partners and have three kids (each). Randy has 2 girls and 1 boy (Maggie, Katie, and Zack), I have 2 boys and 1 girl (Brian, Andrew, and Emily). Ages of the kids are 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, & 13…descending ages with raging youth on the rise…however, for all of our sanity, we are not planning on becoming the Brady Bunch!

I have been divorced for the last 10 years, Randy divorced last year. We have had no contact in the past 18 years except for one time in 1995. An odd twist is that my sister has been married to his brother for all these years (confused yet?).

I received an e-mail from Randy on the 8^th of January (he tracked me down thru classmates.com telling me of his divorce and hoping that I would contact him – which I did that evening. We talked for a few hours that night, yet I couldn’t really tell what he wanted from me relationship wise.

I called him the next morning (9^th of January) and asked him what he was looking for – he asked me to marry him. I always said that if Randy were to reappear in my life I would “snatch him up in a heartbeat”, HOWEVER, I was going to make him “work for my affections” before I gave him an answer. While he was traveling I received dozens of roses, telephone calls (2 to 3 hours every night), and emails.

Randy’s is an Reservoir Engineer with ExxonMobil and his travel schedule is as crazy as mine. Before he left on his trip to Nigeria, Germany, and Scotland, in January he purchased me a ticket to meet him in Caracas, Venezuela (where he was going to be on business) for February 7, 2002.

FINALLY February 7^th came and I flew to Caracas - Randy and I had visited Venezuela while we were married back in May of ‘81 and had a magical time, so it was only fitting that we should reconnect there. I saw him for the 2^nd time in 18 years and if I didn’t know I had my three kids by someone else I would say that we were never apart these last 18 years!

While I could go on with the story, I’ll condensed from here:

We see each other on February 7^th and are officially engaged on February 8^th, we fly home on February 12^th – he to Houston, me to Dallas.

Randy and I meet back up in Los Angeles on February 14^th and fly to Australia – I had a conference to attend in Melbourne and Randy was teaching an engineering course at Esso Australia in Melbourne. We were in Melbourne for 4 days, I flew to Sydney and Randy flew up to meet me for the weekend. We flew back to Melbourne where we stayed for another week – oh yeah, I met, shook hands and had my picture taken with President Clinton (another story, another time).

While in Melbourne we were walking back from dinner one evening and I have yet to make a commitment on whether or not I would marry him. Randy pulls out a coin from his pocket and tosses it in the air and tells me to "call it" I said fine "heads we get married" "tails we don't", well the next day we went out and purchased our wedding rings. To this day he carries that coin in his pocket.

We flew back to the Los Angeles together on March 3^rd, caught our connecting flights, me to Dallas, Randy to Houston. I flew to Houston the morning of the 5^th, got in at 10:30am Randy picked me up at the airport and we went and got our marriage license. In the State of Texas there is a three-day waiting period (we figured it was so that the tattoo has a chance to dry or maybe it’s to get all the alcohol out of your system), we found a judge who would waive the waiting period and were married at 1:38pm that afternoon.

I met Randy’s kids for the first time that evening when we took them out to dinner! I flew home at 6:15am on the 6^th and Randy flew up to Dallas on the 8^th where he met my kids for the first time. We both left Dallas on the 10^th, me to Hawaii (site inspection with a client), Randy to Houston. I returned to Dallas on the 17^th and left for Houston on the 19^th, I was suppose to leave at 3:25pm and arrive in Houston at 4:30pm, but due to bad weather, my flight was a tad delayed – we finally took off at 1:30am on the 20^th and I got in Houston at 2:40am that morning - an 11 hour odyssey for a flight less than an hour (yep, another story, another time).

I leave Houston on Saturday (March 23^rd) and Randy flies off to Nigeria. I forgot to mention that Randy has been posted to Nigeria for the next three years and YES, I will be moving with him along with Andrew and Emily.

It will be a matter of time until the final details of the next chapters of our lives unfold.

Don’t worry, I’ll keep you updated along the way! This fairytale has potential to become a best seller, don’t you think???

To all of my friends and family, I want you to know that these days are among the happiest in my life. I am fortunate to have such a great man that will be my companion thru all of the days and years to come.

Best Regards,

Betsy & Randy (That’s MY HUSBAND!!!)

So, that is how it began back in 2002 and while ALOT has gone on in between then and now, we were in Nigeria for 5 years and now we are in Angola and have been there for the past 2 years.

I'll see how this goes and see if I get any comments about wanting to hear more or less from me about my family's past or current life as it is.